Hero'des A'ntipas
（
Ἡρώδης Ἀντίπας), son of Herod the Great, by Malthace, a Samaritan. (
J. AJ 17.1.3,
B. J. 1.28.4.)
According to the final arrangements of his father's Will, Antipas obtained the tetrarchy of Galilee and Peraea, with a revenue of 200 talents, while the kingdom of Judaea devolved on his elder brother Archelaus. On the death of Herod both Antipas and Archelaus hastened to Rome, where the former secretly endeavored, with the support of his aunt Salome, to set aside this arrangement, and obtain the royal dignity for himself. Augustus, however, after some delay, confirmed in all essential points the provisions of Herod's will, and Antipas returned to take possession of his tetrarchy. On his way to Rome, he had seen and become enamoured of Herodias, the wife of his half-brother, Herod Philip; and after his return to Palestine, he married her, she having, in defiance of the Jewish law, divorced her first husband.
He had been previously married to a daughter of the Arabian prince Aretas, who quitted him in disgust at this new alliance, and retired to her father's court. Aretas subsequently avenged the insult offered to his daughter, as well as some differences that had arisen in regard to the frontiers of their respective states, by invading the dominions of Antipas, and totally defeating the army which was opposed to him.
He was only restrained from farther progress by the fear of Rome; and Tiberius, on the complaint of Antipas, sent orders to Vitellius, the praefect of Syria, to punish this aggression. Antipas himself is said by Josephus (18.7.2) to have been of a quiet and indolent disposition, and destitute of ambition; but he followed the example of his father in the foundation of a city on the lake of Gennesareth, to which he gave the name of Tiberias; besides which, he fortified and adorned with splendid buildings the previously existing cities of Sepphoris and Betharamphtha, and called the latter Julia in honour of the wife of Augustus. In A. D. 38, after the death of Tiberius and accession of Caligula, Herod Antipas was induced to undertake a journey to Rome, to solicit from Caligula in person the title of king, which had just been bestowed upon his nephew, Herod Agrippa. To this step he was instigated by the jealousy and ambition of his wife Herodias; but it proved fatal to him. Agrippa, who was high in the favour of the Roman emperor, made use of all his influence to oppose the elevation of his uncle, whom he even accused of entertaining a treasonable correspondence with the Parthians. On this charge Antipas was deprived of his dominions, which were given to Agrippa, and sent into exile at Lyons (A. D. 39); from hence he was subsequently removed to Spain, where he ended his days in banishlment. Herodias, as she had been the cause of his disgrace, became the partner of his exile. (
J. AJ 17.9,
11,
18.2,
5,
7,
B. J. 2.2, 6, 9.)
It was Herod Antipas who imprisoned and put to death John the Baptist, who had reproached him with his unlawful connection with Herodias. (Matt. 14.3; Mark, 6.17-28; Luke, 3.19.)
It was before him, also, that Christ was sent by Pontius Pilate at Jerusalem, as belonging to his jurisdiction, on account of his supposed Galilean origin. (Luke, 23.6-12.)
He is erroneously styled
king by St. Mark (6.14). We learn little either from Josephus or the Evangelists concerning his personal character or that of his administration but there are not wanting indications that if his government was milder than that of his father, it was yet far from an equitable one. (Concerning the chronology of his reign, see Winer's
Biblisches Real Werterbuch, vol. i. p. 570; and Eckhel, vol. iii. p. 489.)
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E.H.B]
